Assisting Your Firm in Managing the BUSINESS Side of Your Practice

Sometimes you need to create a simple Timeline, but you don’t do it often enough to justify buying expensive application software. What do you do?

We’re all probably familiar with TimeMap, now owned by LexisNexis. It was probably the first really good and easy-to-use software designed specifically for this purpose. It’s become a favorite of trial attorneys and paralegals. There are always specials at trade shows, like ABA TechShow, and I grabbed it for $99 a number of years ago.

If you don’t do a lot of timelines, or don’t get to the shows, how can you produce a decent Timeline without spending the bucks? Simple. You already have tools to do it. Here are instructions on how to create a Timeline using Excel. Here are instructions to create a Timeline using the SmartArt graphics feature in PowerPoint. There’s even free shareware called Timeline, which is a cross-platform application.

All three tips are courtesy of attorney Paula Gibson, on ABA’s LawTech listserv. Thank you Paula!